Naples Wellness Check

How are you Doing?

Many of us care so much about the people in our sphere that we often forget to take care of ourselves. You know what I mean. Dad’s running around all day at work to keep businesses running and workers on task while mom’s are equally stretched with their tasks, kids and home stuff. We barely slide into home plate just to start all over again the next day. It all becomes a blur sometimes. Taking care of so many tasks to keep our worlds together and friends and family feeling special. Hobbies are a deep breath but hardly the calm we truly need to remember why we are alive. A Naples wellness check, or any town’s wellness for that matter, is directly correlated to the individual wellness of its people, and vice versa.

I start with this metaphor to frame a question that seems to be swirling around this magnificent little (I know, kinda opposite words there) town we live in.

How is Naples doing?

For more years than any of us truly know, this area we call Naples, has served up joy upon a silver platter for generations of humans, flora & fauna. Naples the provider, life the beneficiary. But maybe Naples needs a wellness check. On one hand, you have rigid conservation laws that protect our supremely important coastal areas, which are critical to the survival of a multitude of estuarine species and include economically and ecologically valuable nursery areas. But on the other hand you see quite a shift in the socioeconomic status of Neapolitans by the large influx of people moving here.

I’m a capitalist, so I am not saying that is all wrong. But seeing how median home prices have jumped over 40% in the last 18 months, with rent blasting off like a shuttle from Cape Canaveral as well, those healthy tips from 5th Aver’s go less and less far for someone who is trying to earn a decent living to eventually become a homeowner. Depending on who you talk to, you may hear that there is a land problem in Naples. Nothing left to build on. This is how you get a half acre lot in Port Royal with an asking price of $12,000,000. No house, just land.

Others buy the house just to tear it down so they can build it just how they want it. It truly is a great life, and people who make far less could do the same thing, if there were more choices for land, better programs for constructing custom homes and/or builders who felt good about developing single family homes right now. The latest national reading from HUD shows a 2.1% fall in Single Family Home starts from 2021 but a 24.8% increase in Multi-Family starts (5 units and up). Why is there economical encouragement for apartment life in this country? With proof that owning property stimulates a much healthier society, you gotta wonder what these suits in Washington have up their sleeves.

Just how having a job that is designed for minimum wage should not be considered for a living wage, renting should not be a lifelong ambition. As stated in the previous section, it is quite important for everyone in this country to own property. And while we have an absolutely amazing slice of paradise here in SWFL, could it be better?

For help on your next real estate transaction, give me a ring.

Your Agent & Friend for Life,